The Memphis appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1886-1890, 1887-01-09
THE SPELLING REFORM
AND WHAT A MEMPHIS MAN
HAS
To esy About Its Necsssity-Bx-
ampIes That make mr.. story's
Plan PlataeF.
To the Editors Of the Appeal:

l. am RlRu % see you Jake up J1o
subject II spelling reform. The utter
want OF science or method In our al
phsbet and spelling is one cf the cry
ing evils of the day. the best that
can be ssid OF our tpelling is that when
you know how q word Is pronounced
you can tell what sound each letter
represents in that word, but this
Rnowledge is Ct no value iD it, appi-
cation TO any other word, as your IL
ustrstions clearly prove, 30 far as ap
plicable.
Mr.. story's system is good. Indeed,
any system would be good. Our tiou-
BILE is that we have no eystem-- oDly a
barbsroos tumble of signs which rep
resent no definite thing, and OF sounds
which you do not represent with any
certainty by signs.
We nave more than forty sounds in
the language, with twenty Six letters
10 represent them But OF these let
ters some are duplicates ard at the
ssme time represent several sounds
q is one # the most us' 4 letters in the
font OF English, yet u entirely use
less. 1t always repret OF either the
sound OF k or that OF g, and there il no
mode in which you Can tel whether
1t is ( ors. O,her duplicates are said
to reduces our available letters tn
eighteen which we use to represent
the forty odd sounds of the language.
This requires that each letter should
stand for more than two sounds. II
we only required what this made
Necessary we might congratulate our.
selves, but it is much worse than this
A has FIVE different sounds. We
might even put up with this II this
was the worst. But these five sounds
are represented in twenty-seven dif.
ferent WAYS. Tt is seems hardly cred
ible, but can give the illustrations.
Such condition Of affairs is intolera-
BILE. Other letters are measurably in
like condition. What Il needed is one
sign to represent each sound, and
each sound with a eingle sign to rep
resent thai and no other. This Mr..
Story's syttem gives rs.
There |, another evil incorporated
In our language, which in a reform
ought to be got rid Of. Names are
necessary to designate things. You
cannot ask for a thing unless you
know IFS name. A description Is only
q longer name. Names are, there fore,
essential to the designation OF things.
But names are sound to represent
things which are not sounds. No
name is needed to designate a sound
where you can exhibit the sound
itself. A deaf mute needs no name
for his hand when he can show it. We
need no vocal name for sound when
the sound is always ready on the lip.
When vocally sounded the sound Of A
is its name. Now, the letter is the
name or sign of the sound. In the
novels the name given to the letter is
the sound or one of the sounds it rep.
resents. This far we have improved
on the Alpha, epsilon, cts, ioti and
upsilon Of the Greek and the Aleph
OF the Hebrew. But when we come
10 Other letters, cons,nants, we give
them absurd names, having 10 quality
of their sound. Instsnce II, aitch, The
aspirste is somewhat diff ut to pro.
duce by itself. But it can bs done W tn
a little practice. Toe difficulty doss
not Justify the assertion tnai hen ia
spslt aitCh.e.en. In the new system
as the signs are each 10 represent
sound, b. the written sigu for the
sound, in other words the written
name OF the sound, the sound should
be- the vocal name OF the siVn-and it
should have no her. The inetinct
OF the child who has imbib d the first
idea Of peling is to give the success
sive sounds which constitute the
word instead OF the names OF the let
ters. This we regard as it, crude effort.
But this 10 really the philosophy OF
the thing, aud our Artificial tumble OF
names for al ms which are themselves
names) is barbarous and crude instead.
Ia a system then the sign would
be the name OF the sound. As
we can attach the name of a
horse to the animal only by show
ing 1t aud saying: This Is horse, so
we can only associate the sign with
the souod by vocally presenting the
sound. To al advanced student or
mature person we could convey the
idea in writing by describing the
movement of the vnious organs by
WHICH the particular sound is pro-
duced, as we could convey some idea
of the animal particu ar word was
the name Of by description in words
scientific or in ordinary use. Letters
then should have no arbitrary names,
but be associated with the sound and
with that alone. AITcH.
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